(The Center Square) – Voter confidence has been shaken with voting machines malfunctioning in several Illinois jurisdictions.
In McLean County, 34 ballots were placed in what the County Clerk Kathy Michael called “an emergency bin,” which is located underneath the voting machine used to tabulate ballots. At the Eastland Mall, an early voting location, the machine “glitched” for 30 minutes.
Affected voter Wayne Henrichs called the clerk’s office after putting his ballot in the bin and was connected with an assistant county clerk.
“She indicated that they [the ballots in the emergency bin] are considered mail in ballots and they will be counted on election day rather than being counted early,” said Henrichs.
Mclean County Elections Director Mark Senger said any ballots placed in the “emergency” bin will be tabulated after the early voting sites close. Senger said the ballots were tabulated after they closed on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
“The thing that concerned me was one: Is that really secure? Two: we are voting early for a reason and that’s to bank those votes,” said Henrichs.
Such ballots are to be tabulated and witnessed by Democratic and Republican election judges, according to state law.
In viral social media posts, voters say they walked out of a Schaumburg early voting site after the ballot scanner stopped working. One Schaumburg voter posted a video saying he didn’t cast his ballot after election judges told him to put his ballot in a box to be scanned later.
“Well, so much for early voting. Their scanner’s broken, and they said, ’don’t worry, we’ll just put it in the box, and we’ll make sure we scan them all tonight,’ uh, when everybody leaves,” the voter said said.
In another video posted on social media, election judges can be seen addressing a group of about 50 voters. A man wearing what appears to be an election judge badge made an announcement.
“We have one scanner and the one scanner is broken,” the man said.
“No one is going to open that [the emergency bin] up until tonight, and that’s us who take care of it. You know us, you have our badges,” said another election judge.
McLean County GOP Chair Dennis Grundler was at the Eastland Mall trying to vote early on Tuesday. He said he was told to put his ballot in the emergency bin and he asked the judges for their names. The election judges didn’t give him their names.
The McLean County Clerk’s Office said the law states for security purposes judges now use a letter designation instead of their name. According to the law, judges must initial ballots and they use their name/initials.
